Lily Chao is the author of EaseChinese.com at http://www.easechinese.com, a website providing a collection of reviews and recommendations of Chinese language learning resources, and more. She is also a would-be TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language) teacher, living and studying in Beijing, China.
Most westerners assert that Chinese characters are the most difficult part in learning Chinese language. In my opinion, to learn written Chinese efficiently, one must know about the origin of the character and its evolution.